We have already addressed both Mason Rudolph's merits as a quarterback and his issues in how he cycles through his progressions, but a primary concern about Rudolph has been his arm strength. Rudolph had plenty of big plays where he was able to complete deep bombs in the Big 12, but the question of how he could put zip on his passes remained.
What I saw from Rudolph's tape was less of a question about his arm strength, and more of how comfortable he was making certain throws. Rudolph absolutely has the arm to whip the ball for deep passes and complete medium routes into tighter passing lanes, he's just inconsistent when faced with certain coverages.
Rudolph looked comfortable throwing into single coverage, but struggled at times when throwing into windows with multiple defenders. We go to his film to illustrate this point:
As we've shown before, Rudolph is at his best when he can stick to his primary read on a play, focus on his target and make a throw when he has a clear one-on-one matchup. Here's an example of him completing an 18-yard deep post route to James Washington for a touchdown. Notice how Rudolph makes the perfect throw on a strike as Washington breaks away from the cornerback covering him and before the middle safety can get to the route:
Rudolph absolutely has the arm to make those throws, but when he's throwing to a receiver who is bracketed by underneath and overtop coverage, Rudolph sometimes gets flustered and overthrows his target. Take this interception he threw against Kansas State as an example.
Rudolph reads another deep post by Washington that's meant to cut through the middle of the defense and split the safeties, but he charges up his throw so much that his pass goes right to the deep safety whom he's trying to avoid:
This is what I noticed when Rudolph made his biggest mistakes: Either he would miss a throw because he rushed it when pressure kept him from being able to set his feet and focus on his target, or because he tried to force a pass into a tight window.
These are obstacles which Rudolph will have to overcome in the NFL. Another example of this problem was in the blowout win over Pitt last season when he threw an interception to Avonte Maddox.
Rudolph sees his receiver streaking up the field, but once the safety approaches from the middle of the field, he pulls back his throw rather than targeting the end zone, which allows Maddox to jump it and make a great play:
While Rudolph had already had a career day against Pitt, that was a moment when Rudolph struggled fitting a ball into a tight window. There are times when he does overcome this problem, but one advantage of playing in the Big 12 was not having to face elite defenses every week.
Rudolph thrived when seeing single coverage opportunities and being able to throw into open space. Those moments won't come as often in the pros, so it will be imperative for him to work on staying accurate.
That kind of development only comes with experience that Rudolph will undoubtedly get in both training camp and the preseason. But make no mistake, Rudolph does have the arm to compete in the NFL. It will be up to him to figure out how to use it.
